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On Writing Mechanisms

A few years ago I made the Best Decision and shelled out money for the teeniest, lightest laptop I could find – an Inspiron Mini Netbook. Suddenly, my writing could go everywhere I went, and it did. I could take it on the plane, on the bus, walk with it to a coffee shop, bring it along on a hike – all without having to plan or think about it. It fits in my purse and goes wherever I go, so I could write at the drop of hat.

Unfortunately, about a year ago it started to stutter and slow. I tried 100 different things to fix it, but when it decided to start taking 10, 15+ min just to open a word document, I finally grew frustrated enough to install Linux. That worked for a while, but now the little netbook that could is dying on me again.

Which puts me in the market for a new netbook. In my researching the current netbook market, I’ve been amazed at the sheer number of tablets marketed to stand in for what was once an ultralight, ultraportable, and ultracheap item. For one, they’re not ultracheap. For another, you have to buy a keyboard separately. And for a third – who wants a touchscreen for writing?

It makes me wonder what people do use for writing. The ubiquitous but far less portable laptop? The increasingly ubiquitous tablet? Home computer? Work computer? Desktop? Iphone? Let me know. I’m very curious.

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Here is my current progress on OIBM, a YA fantasy ruckus about magical girls, the apocalypse, and exactly whose fault it is:

Fun Recent Google Searches: The Emergency Broadcast System, which, by the way, was replaced by the Emergency Alert System in 1997. Did you notice? I didn’t notice. Thank you, Google.